MOTHERBOARD

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In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board (PCB) in many moderncomputers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple computers, the logic board.^[1] It is also sometimes casually shortened to mobo.

Motherboard for an Acer desktop personal computer, showing the typical components and interfaces that are found on a motherboard. This model was made by Foxconn in 2008, and follows the ATX layout (known as the "form factor") usually employed for desktop computers. It is designed to work with AMD's Athlon 64 processor.

[edit] History

Prior to the advent of the microprocessor, a computer was usually built in a card-cage case ormainframe with components connected by a backplane consisting of a set of slots themselves connected with wires; in very old designs the wires were discrete connections between card connector pins, but printed circuit boards soon became the standard practice. The Central Processing Unit, memory and peripherals were housed on individual printed circuit boards which plugged into the backplate. During the late 1980s and 1990s, it became economical to move an increasing number of peripheral functions onto the motherboard (see below). In the late 1980s, motherboards began to include single ICs (called Super I/O chips) capable of supporting a set of low-speed peripherals: keyboard, mouse, floppy disk drive, serial ports, and parallel ports. As of the late 1990s, many personal computer motherboards supported a full range of audio, video, storage, and networking functions without the need for any expansion cards at all; higher-end systems for 3Dgaming and computer graphics typically retained only the graphics card as a separate component.
The early pioneers of motherboard manufacturing were Micronics, Mylex, AMI, DTK, Hauppauge,Orchid Technology, Elitegroup, DFI, and a number of Taiwan-based manufacturers.
The most popular computers such as the Apple II and IBM PC had published schematic diagrams and other documentation which permitted rapid reverse-engineering and third-party replacement motherboards. Usually intended for building new computers compatible with the exemplars, many motherboards offered additional performance or other features and were used to upgrade the manufacturer's original equipment
The term mainboard is applied to devices with a single board and no additional expansions or capability. In modern terms this would include embedded systems and controlling boards in televisions, washing machines, etc. A motherboard specifically refers to a printed circuit board with expansion capability.

[edit] Overview

A motherboard, like a backplane, provides the electrical connections by which the other components of the system communicate, but unlike a backplane, it also connects the central processing unit and hosts other subsystems and devices.
A typical desktop computer has its microprocessor, main memory, and other essential components connected to the motherboard. Other components such as external storage, controllers for videodisplay and sound, and peripheral devices may be attached to the motherboard as plug-in cards or via cables, although in modern computers it is increasingly common to integrate some of these peripherals into the motherboard itself.
An important component of a motherboard is the microprocessor's supporting chipset, which provides the supporting interfaces between the CPU and the various buses and external components. This chipset determines, to an extent, the features and capabilities of the motherboard.
Modern motherboards include, at a minimum:

• sockets (or slots) in which one or more microprocessors may be installed^[2]
• slots into which the system's main memory is to be installed (typically in the form ofDIMM modules containing DRAM chips)
• a chipset which forms an interface between the CPU's front-side bus, main memory, and peripheral buses
• non-volatile memory chips (usually Flash ROM in modern motherboards) containing the system's firmware or BIOS
• a clock generator which produces the system clock signal to synchronize the various components
• slots for expansion cards (these interface to the system via the buses supported by the chipset)
• power connectors, which receive electrical power from the computer power supply and distribute it to the CPU, chipset, main memory, and expansion cards.^[3]

The Octek Jaguar V motherboard from 1993.^[4] This board has few onboard peripherals, as evidenced by the 6 slots provided for ISA cards and the lack of other built-in external interface connectors.

Additionally, nearly all motherboards include logic and connectors to support commonly used input devices, such as PS/2 connectors for a mouse and keyboard. Early personal computers such as theApple II or IBM PC included only this minimal peripheral support on the motherboard. Occasionally video interface hardware was also integrated into the motherboard; for example, on the Apple II and rarely on IBM-compatible computers such as the IBM PC Jr. Additional peripherals such as disk controllers and serial ports were provided as expansion cards.
Given the high thermal design power of high-speed computer CPUs and components, modern motherboards nearly always include heat sinks and mounting points for fans to dissipate excess heat.

[edit] CPU sockets

Main article: CPU socket

A CPU socket or slot is an electrical component that attaches to a printed circuit board (PCB) and is designed to house a CPU (also called a microprocessor). It is a special type of integrated circuit socket designed for very high pin counts. A CPU socket provides many functions, including a physical structure to support the CPU, support for a heat sink, facilitating replacement (as well as reducing cost), and most importantly, forming an electrical interface both with the CPU and the PCB. CPU sockets can most often be found in most desktop and server computers (laptops typically use surface mount CPUs), particularly those based on the Intel x86 architecture on the motherboard. A CPU socket type and motherboard chipset must support the CPU series and speed.

[edit] Integrated peripherals

Block diagram of a modern motherboard, which supports many on-board peripheral functions as well as several expansion slots.

With the steadily declining costs and size of integrated circuits, it is now possible to include support for many peripherals on the motherboard. By combining many functions on one PCB, the physical size and total cost of the system may be reduced; highly integrated motherboards are thus especially popular in small form factor and budget computers.
For example, the ECS RS485M-M,^[5] a typical modern budget motherboard for computers based onAMD processors, has on-board support for a very large range of peripherals:

• disk controllers for a floppy disk drive, up to 2 PATA drives, and up to 6 SATA drives (including RAID 0/1 support)
• integrated graphics controller supporting 2D and 3D graphics, with VGA and TV output
• integrated sound card supporting 8-channel (7.1) audio and S/PDIF output
• Fast Ethernet network controller for 10/100 Mbit networking
• USB 2.0 controller supporting up to 12 USB ports
• IrDA controller for infrared data communication (e.g. with an IrDA-enabled cellular phone or printer)
• temperature, voltage, and fan-speed sensors that allow software to monitor the health of computer components

Expansion cards to support all of these functions would have cost hundreds of dollars even a decade ago; however, as of April 2007 such highly integrated motherboards are available for as little as $30 in the US.

[edit] Peripheral card slots

A typical motherboard of 2009 will have a different number of connections depending on its standard.
A standard ATX motherboard will typically have one PCI-E 16x connection for a graphics card, two conventional PCI slots for various expansion cards, and one PCI-E 1x (which will eventually supersede PCI). A standard EATX motherboard will have one PCI-E 16x connection for a graphics card, and a varying number of PCI and PCI-E 1x slots. It can sometimes also have a PCI-E 4x slot. (This varies between brands and models.)
Some motherboards have two PCI-E 16x slots, to allow more than 2 monitors without special hardware, or use a special graphics technology called SLI (for Nvidia) and Crossfire (for ATI). These allow 2 graphics cards to be linked together, to allow better performance in intensive graphical computing tasks, such as gaming and video editing.
As of 2007, virtually all motherboards come with at least four USB ports on the rear, with at least 2 connections on the board internally for wiring additional front ports that may be built into the computer's case. Ethernet is also included. This is a standard networking cable for connecting the computer to a network or a modem. A sound chip is always included on the motherboard, to allow sound output without the need for any extra components. This allows computers to be far moremultimedia-based than before. Some motherboards contain video outputs on the back panel for integrated graphics solutions (either embedded in the motherboard, or combined with the microprocessor, such as the Intel HD Graphics). A separate card may still be used.

[edit] Temperature and reliability

Main article: Computer cooling

Motherboards are generally air cooled with heat sinks often mounted on larger chips, such as theNorthbridge, in modern motherboards. Insufficient or improper cooling can cause damage to the internal components of the computer and cause it to crash. Passive cooling, or a single fan mounted on the power supply, was sufficient for many desktop computer CPUs until the late 1990s; since then, most have required CPU fans mounted on their heat sinks, due to rising clock speeds and power consumption. Most motherboards have connectors for additional case fans as well. Newer motherboards have integrated temperature sensors to detect motherboard and CPU temperatures, and controllable fan connectors which the BIOS or operating system can use to regulate fan speed. Some computers (which typically have high-performance microprocessors, large amounts of RAM, and high-performance video cards) use a water-cooling system instead of many fans.
Some small form factor computers and home theater PCs designed for quiet and energy-efficient operation boast fan-less designs. This typically requires the use of a low-power CPU, as well as careful layout of the motherboard and other components to allow for heat sink placement.
A 2003 study^[6] found that some spurious computer crashes and general reliability issues, ranging from screen image distortions to I/O read/write errors, can be attributed not to software or peripheralhardware but to aging capacitors on PC motherboards. Ultimately this was shown to be the result of a faulty electrolyte formulation.^[7]

A microATX motherboard with some faulty capacitors.

For more information on premature capacitor failure on PC motherboards, see capacitor plague.

Motherboards use electrolytic capacitors to filter the DC power distributed around the board. These capacitors age at a temperature-dependent rate, as their water based electrolytes slowly evaporate. This can lead to loss of capacitance and subsequent motherboard malfunctions due to voltageinstabilities. While most capacitors are rated for 2000 hours of operation at 105 °C,^[8] their expected design life roughly doubles for every 10 °C below this. At 45 °C a lifetime of 15 years can be expected. This appears reasonable for a computer motherboard. However, many manufacturers have delivered substandard capacitors,^[9] which significantly reduce life expectancy. Inadequate case cooling and elevated temperatures easily exacerbate this problem. It is possible, but tedious and time

STORAGE

In a computer, storage is the place where data is held in an electromagnetic or optical form for access by a computer processor. There are two general usages.

1) Storage is frequently used to mean the devices and data connected to the computer through input/output operations - that is, hard disk and tape systems and other forms of storage that don't include computer memory and other in-computer storage. For the enterprise, the options for this kind of storage are of much greater variety and expense than that related to memory. This meaning is probably more common in the IT industry than meaning 2.

2) In a more formal usage, storage has been divided into: (1) primary storage, which holds data in memory (sometimes called random access memory or RAM

) and other "built-in" devices such as the processor's L1 cache, and (2) secondary storage, which holds data on hard disks, tapes, and other devices requiring input/output operations.

OUTPUT DEVICES

Any device that outputs information from a computer is called, not surprisingly, an output device. Since most information from a computer is output in either a visual or auditory format, the most common output devices are the monitor and speakers. These two devices provide instant feedback to the user's input, such as displaying characters as they are typed or playing a song selected from a playlist.

While monitors and speakers are the most common output devices, there are many others. Some examples include headphones, printers, projectors, lighting control systems, audio recording devices, and robotic machines. A computer without an output device connected to it is pretty useless, since the output is what we interact with. Anyone who has ever had a monitor or printer stop working knows just how true this is. Of course, it is also important to be able to send information to the computer, which requires an input device.

INPUT DEVICE

An input device is a peripheral used to transfer data from the outside world into a computer system. In other words, it is any machine that feeds data into a computer.

Input devices convert the user's actions and analog data (sound, graphics, pictures) into digital electronic signals that can be ‘handled’ or ‘read’ by a computer. Digital data (such as from barcode readers, scanners, etc.) does not require any conversion and is input direct into a computer. It is through input devices that a user exercises control over a computer, its operations, and outputs.

Examples of input devices are:

Keyboard
Mouse
Light pen
Joystick
Scanner
Touch screen
Digitising tablet
Microphone
Barcode reader.
Graphic tablet
Magnetic-stripe reader

All the devices above feed data or instruction into a computer for display, processing, storage, or outputting.

CLASSIFICATION OF INPUT DEVICES
Many input devices can be classified according to:

the modality of input (e.g. mechanical motion, audio, visual, sound, etc.)
whether the input is discrete (e.g. keypresses) or continuous (e.g. a mouse's position, though digitized into a discrete quantity, is high-resolution enough to be thought of as continuous)
the number of degrees of freedom involved (e.g. many mice allow 2D positional input, but some devices allow 3D input, such as the Logitech Magellan Space Mouse)

Pointing devices, which are input devices used to specify a position in space, can further be classified according to
Whether the input is direct or indirect. With direct input, the input space coincides with the display space, i.e. pointing is done in the space where visual feedback or the cursor appears. Touchscreens and light pens involve direct input. Examples involving indirect input include the mouse and trackball.
Whether the positional information is absolute (e.g. on a touch screen) or relative (e.g. with a mouse that can be lifted and repositioned)

Note that direct input is almost necessarily absolute, but indirect input may be either absolute or relative. For example, digitizing graphics tablets that do not have an embedded screen involve indirect input, and sense absolute positions and are often run in an absolute input mode, but they may also be setup to simulate a relative input mode where the stylus or puck can be lifted and repositioned

cyber law

What is Cyber Law? 
Cyber law refers to any laws relating to protecting the Internet and 
other online communication technologies. 
NEEDS FOR CYBER LAW 
In the recent years, many concerns and issues were raised on the integrity and security of 
information, legal status of online transactions, privacy and confidentiality of information, 
intellectual property rights and security of government data placed on the Internet. 


CYBER LAW

Integrity and Security of Information

Security of Government Data

Legal Status of Online Transactions 
Privacy and Confidentially of Information

Intellectual Property Rights 

These concerns and issues clearly indicate why cyber laws are needed in online activities. 
THE CYBER LAW ACTS IN MALAYSIA 
The Malaysian Government has already passed several cyber laws to control and reduce the 
Internet abuse. These cyber laws include: 
• Digital Signature Act 1997 
• Computer Crimes Act 1997 
• Telemedicine Act 1997 
• Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 
Beside these cyber laws, there are three other cyber laws being drafted.   
• Private Data Protection Bill 
• Electronic Government Activities Bill 
• Electronic Transactions Bill   
Digital Signature Act 1997 
The Digital Signature Act 1997 secures electronic communications 
especially on the Internet. Digital Signature is an identity verification 
standard that uses encryption techniques to protect against e-mail 
forgery. The encrypted code consists of the user’s name and a hash of 
all the parts of the message. 
By attaching the digital signature, one can ensure that nobody can eavesdrop, intercept or

temper with transmitted data.



Computer Crimes Act 1997 
The Computer Crimes Act 1997 gives protection against the misuses 
of computers and computer criminal activities such as unauthorised 
use of programmes, illegal transmission of data or  messages over 
computers and hacking and cracking of computer systems and 
networks. 
By implementing the Computer Crimes Act 1997, users can protect 
their rights to privacy and build trust in the computer system. At the 
same time, the government can have control at a certain level over cyberspace to reduce 
cyber crime activities. 
Telemedicine Act 1997 
The Telemedicine Act 1997 ensures that only qualified medical 
practitioners can practice telemedicine and that their patient's rights 
and interests are protected. These act provides the future 
development and delivery of healthcare in Malaysia.
Communications And Multimedia Act 1998 
The implementation of Communication and Telecommunication Act 
1998 ensures that information is secure, the network is reliable and 
the service is affordable all over Malaysia. This Act also ensures high 
level of user's confidence in the information and communication technology industry. 

computer crime and security threats

Introduction

Data technologies poses numerous threats to businesses, institutions and people alike. Personal computer related threats might be either unintended or intended. Individuals with criminal intentions normally conduct the latter. Technology has transformed seemingly timid individuals into high tech criminals. In the past, one could simply utilize Security camera systems for protection, but not with these types of attacks. They have the potential to destroy the integrity or confidentiality of documents thus utilizing the information for their own ill intentioned purposes. The essay shall examine web crime and methods one can deal with it through IT security. (Honeynet, 2005)

How personal computer crime occurs

The world today is filled with malicious, careless or unscrupulous people. Some internet crimes are committed by members of the same organization although others could be committed by specialists who may have specialized in on-line crime. (Honeynet, 2005)

The initial category of criminals are disloyal staff members. These are individuals who have access to sensitive data and decide to dispense it to companies competitors or to company enemies. In such companies, employees have minimal sense of responsibility. It is likely that when they dispense sensitive data to competitors, they get material advantages in return. Ultimately, companies loose their competitive benefit.

Computer crime might happen in the form of unauthorized access to data. Here, people can gain access to information by figuring out passwords. In this case, passwords that are really obvious or those one that are shorter than six letters or also those ones that have been utilized for too lengthy are particularly susceptible.

Sometimes, the individuals who could bring about serious security threats are administrators themselves. Companies that face the highest risk are those ones that have 1 system both for normal production and for other specialized purposes. Also, such firms tend to give privileges to personal computer programmers who could abuse their positions. It is also likely that such businesses do not have a two-sided system of clarification. (Mandia and Prosise, 2001)

1 can assert that the worst threat emanates from external sources. For instance, some people may possibly specialize in permeating firewalls. Besides that, there are some personal computer wizards who know methods of dodging firewalls. Such wizards may access info or they may send harmful viruses, worms or other kinds of software program that might grow to be dangerously hazardous. There are pc wizards who dedicate a lot of time creating these viruses so that they can destroy innocent user’s info. The victim is then forced to contact them and invest substantial amounts of cash to eradicate the virus. Others have the capability of altering information with out knowledge from the user. Here, they master the architecture of the laptop or computer and then manipulate it. (Oaks, 2002)

At other times, it is likely that a malicious individual gets hold of back up storage data. Businesses that are most susceptible to this kind of crime are those ones are those ones that do not lock up their back up media appropriately or those ones with loose rules about accessing firm archives. (Viega and McGraw, 2004)

Approaches of enhancing net security

Prevention

This kind of approach refers to limiting the level of data available to personnel. In this case, businesses can guarantee that their employees only gain access to data that they will need to complete certain tasks. This indicates that even those who modify info really should only do this inside their own jurisdictions. Additionally, businesses really should restrict data availability fully for documents that are extremely sensitive. (Roily, 2007)

All the latter categories ought to be determined by the process of information classification. 1 can define data classification as the method of labeling information on the basis of security vulnerability or sensitivity. Organizations ought to location their documents into the following categories

Top secret
Open
Secret
Confidential

The classification system is the 1st step in protecting one’s documents because it lays out the significant framework for security. The person who really should do the classification is the owner of the details. Besides the latter, it is extremely needed for businesses to document all the classifications systems inside a security handbook. This is instrumental in the event that a security crisis occurs. (Fraser et al, 2005)

Policy changes

No approach of data security can be profitable without having changing the policies and procedures within organizations. Organizations should struggle to produce an environment where workers respect the problem of internet security. Here, it would be necessary to generate a disciplined environment where work practices foster details security. Additionally, those men and women who are given confidential info need to be capable of maintaining its integrity. This means that they should be trustworthy. Companies ought to also explain to their staff about the most vital data and information that is not. This means that a significant percentage of them will need to keep off sensitive data. (Garfinkel, 2001)

Organizations ought to train their employees about security threats. Here, the training sessions are supposed to inform the employees about how to use security tools, how to detect threats and how to deal with them. Here, employees need to know the experts they can contact in case of a perceived security threat. Besides that, they really should also be informed about how to make back up systems. Training is specifically essential for new employees within the company.

Clarification of problems

Security threats differ from company to organization. Some groups could be very vulnerable to internet crime even though some may possibly not. Consequently, guidelines ought to be laid out as to what constitutes a security threat and how vulnerable 1 is. The following should be outlined clearly

Security targets
Principles of info classification
Responsible personnel
Principles for reaching targets

In line with the latter, organizations really should develop a well laid out security plan. Even though curbing net crime can be carried out in variety of methods, businesses should prioritize the most essential security measures. Management and users will need to be told about their responsibilities. (Grimes, 2004)

Implementing web security

Security implementation can be carried out through a variety of methods. The 1st one is by means of authorization. Authorization ought to be accomplished via two key steps validation and identification.

Identification can be carried out via basic or far more complicated techniques. Some firms opt to use password systems. Here, particular people are given passwords that act as keys to info. Businesses that manage to use this system successfully are those ones that have one password for every individual. When everyone can use a password, then it makes it a lot less complicated for net crime to happen. Great passwords must be distinct, ought to be changed often and ought to not be repeated if they had ever been used in the past. Lastly, passwords need to be changed when people leave job positions or change departments. (Dekker, 2006)

These days, security systems have improved tremendously. The latter technique of passwords merely depends on something that a user possesses. However, far more powerful security measures depend on issues that one has and things that one knows. For example, an organization could ask for a password along with a magnetic card in order to enhance security.  The magnetic card contains some confidential details which can be identified by the personal computer system. Additionally, companies can use chip cards. The chip usually has memory. (Van and Forno, 2001)

A far more successful system is one that combines, some thing one has, with something 1 owns and some thing that is such as biometric systems. Here, people are only allowed to access particular categories of info soon after their physical functions have been verified. 1 of the examples consists of finger print and retina patterns.

Internet security can also be enhanced via backing up information. This is due to the fact some viruses have the capacity to destroy ones’ documents entirely. In order to counter such actions, then it is necessary for businesses or individuals  back up their data through another system of storage such as a removable device. The device can then be placed in a locked cabinet or a location that is completely secured.

Organizations should be careful about their back up systems since one can focus on the primary source of info and then ignore the other source of info. This means that in case the main details is destroyed, 1 would be forced to contend with obsolete info. Organisations need to be keen about editing and changing their back up details from time to time. This will go a lengthy way in promoting the reliability of the back up systems (Anderson, 2003)

Alternatively, organizations can choose to set up firewalls for their information. This is a system that prevents access to information between two networks. Firewalls can be divided into two. Some of them focus on restricting access although other people dwell on permitting selective access.  A packet filter firewall allows packets of details to enter a protected server or they may have the ability to block those respective packets. The other kind of firewall called the application gateway is 1 that acts as a go between two servers by addressing packets to user application. (Zwicky et al, 2000)

Conclusion

The proliferation of Information Technology into all aspects of life has made users really vulnerable. Personal computer crimes could happen via a number of strategies and seriously compromise the user’s functions. It is as a result needed to implement a wide range of security measures that can avoid world wide web crime. Some of these measures contain preventive measures, changing security policies, creating data back ups, making use of firewalls, using biometrics, employing efficient passwords and lastly utilizing tangible methods of identification such as magnetic cards.

Reference:

Anderson, P. (2003): Cyber crime has become an epidemic ERRI Journal, 12, three, 45

Dekker, M. (2006): Security of the Net Encyclopedia of Telecommunications vol. 15, pp. 231-255

Fraser, D. et al (2005): Personal computer crime research resources CyberSpace Law Center Report, 23rd April, No. 7

Grimes, R. (2004): Virus Protection for Windows O’Reilly &amp Associates

Garfinkel, S. (2001): The Death of Privacy in the 21st C O’Reilly &amp Associates

Honeynet (2005): Revealing the Security Tactics, Tools and Motives of the web Community McGraw Hill

Mandia, K. and Prosise, C. (2001): Investigating Laptop or computer Crime McGraw-Hill

Oaks, S. (2002): Java Security McMillan Publishers

Roily, T. (2007): Hacker Accused of Credit-card Fraud, Could 23, Linked Press

Van, R. and Forno, R. (2001): Incident Response O’Reilly &amp Associates

Viega, J. and McGraw, G. (2004): How to Avoid Security Troubles Addison-Wesley

Zwicky, E. et al (2000): Building Net Firewalls, O’Reilly &amp Associates